Mobile terminals are developed to provide wireless communication between users. As technology has advanced, mobile terminals now provide many additional features beyond simple telephone conversation. For example, mobile terminals are now able to provide additional functions such as an alarm, a Short Messaging Service (SMS), a Multimedia Message Service (MMS), E-mail, games, remote control of short range communication, an image capturing function using a mounted digital camera, a multimedia function for providing audio and video content, a scheduling function, and many more. With the plurality of features now provided, a mobile terminal has effectively become a necessity of daily life.
Mobile terminals now are commonly available with touch sensitive screens. The touch sensitive screens can accept a user's touch as an input, and determine an appropriate function to execute in response to the touch input according to the location of the touch input.
However, it is an inconvenience to users that the related art does not reveal the function to be executed prior to the touch input. For example, if a user is playing a game and taps on the game character's weapon, the user might be expecting the character to fire the weapon. However, the game might be programmed such that the weapon is fired by tapping a target, and tapping on the weapon may cause the game character to holster the weapon so as to free the hands for other tasks. Thus, the user may not be aware that the function of a particular input is undesired until after the input is entered.
Further, it has been a limitation in the related art that inputs can relate to functions only by the input itself, and not according to various possible objects the user might employ to touch the screen. For example, a user using an application with complex input possibilities, such as a game, may be required to change a state of the game in order to enable a desired input. However, if the user could have inputs of different objects, for example, different fingers, identified and thus procure different responses, it would greatly convenience the user by multiplying the possible inputs and resulting functions by the number of differentiable inputs, for example, multiple fingers.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus and method for providing differentiated touch inputs to a touch sensitive mobile device. Further, there is a need for an apparatus and method indicating a function of a touch input of a touch sensitive mobile device.